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Desert hopper
|image = Documentary= |-|Manga= |-|Dinopark= |name = Desert hopper |kingdom = Animalia |phylum = Mollusca |class = Gastropoda}} The '''desert hopper' is a species of hopping, rabbit-sized cone snail native to the Rainshadow Desert of Pangaea II, in 200 million AD. The desert hopper has evolved a single, three-toed limb to aid its survival in the desert. Biology The desert hopper grows to about 1' tall, around the size of a Human era rabbit, and has an 8'' conical shell. The soft, slimy skin of the hopper's ancestors has evolved into horny, interlocking scales which form tough, lizardlike skin which locks in essential moisture, and is tough enough to protect the hopper against most spiny plants. To avoid wasting water, it does not secrete slime like a Human era snail. The most striking feature of the desert hopper is its single muscular, foot-like jumping organ. The jumping action of this foot works on a bellows mechanism hidden within the shell of the hopper, which pumps air in and out of the lungs, providing the hopper with enough oxygen for its active lifestyle. Moving at its top speed, a desert hopper can travel about as fast as a human jogger. This way of moving provides a number of benefits to the desert hopper: it keeps its body off the hot sand for as long as possible; does not require a slime trail, which would be a waste of water; and is a more efficient way to cover long distances in search of food. The denticle-covered mouthparts or radula of the desert hopper has evolved into a rod-like organ, tipped with a denticled drill, which can easily pierce the toughest of plants to extract pulp and valuable moisture. Behaviour thumb|200px|To avoid the heat of the sun, desert hoppers come out during the night to browse on shrubs. Desert hoppers are nocturnal animals, avoiding the heat of the daytime by burrowing beneath the sand, leaving nothing visible above the surface. They emerge from the sand shell-tip-first during sunset, and spend the night browsing on low shrubs and other tough, fibrous vegetation. Their shells and thick skin protect them from spiny plants, and their denticle-covered radulas allow them to drill through waterproof cuticles, so there are few if any plants in the Rainshadow Desert which hoppers cannot eat. Due to the constant lack of water, hoppers obtain all their moisture from the plants they feed on. Ecology As the most substantial animal in the Rainshadow Desert, the desert hopper is an important prey item for the deathbottle, a carnivorous flowering plant. When a hungry desert hopper approaches a deathbottle hoping to feed on its leaves, it may accidentally fall into the deathbottle's covered chamber, where it will be killed, then digested. A single hopper will sustain a deathbottle for several days. Appearances In the documentary In "Graveyard Desert," desert hoppers are shown emerging from the sand as night falls, coming out to browse on shrubs. One hopper is caught and killed in a deathbottle trap. In the manga In "Rainshadow Desert," a desert hopper browsing at dawn is alarmed by the sudden appearance of a flishwreck from the sky. Later, during the night, a herd of desert hoppers go down into a valley to feed, only for most of them to fall into deathbottle traps. One hopper manages to escape by jumping across the rocks and clambering out of the valley. Soon afterwards, another wave of flishwrecks falls from the sky. List of appearances *''The Future Is Wild'' **1x01. Welcome to the Future **1x12. Graveyard Desert **''The Future Is Wild'' (US) *''The Future Is Wild: A Natural History of the Future'' *''The Future Is Wild'' manga **07. Rainshadow Desert *''The Future Is Wild: The Living Book'' Notes *In "Graveyard Desert," the buried desert hopper shells emerging from the ground are prosthetic models. This is one of only three instances in the documentary of a future animal being represented by a physical model, as opposed to CGI (the others being the decimated ocean phantom in "Flooded World" and the forest flish eaten by a slithersucker in "The Tentacled Forest"). Gallery |-|Documentary= FIW 1x12 Desert hopper shell.png FIW 1x12 Rainshadow Desert morning.png FIW 1x12 Desert Hopper.png FIW 1x12 Desert hopper browsing.png FIW 1x12 Desert hopper.png FIW 1x12 Desert hopper group.png FIW 1x12 Desert hopper in deathbottle.png FIW 1x12 Desert hopper trapped.png |-|Promotional= Deserthopper-600px.jpg Desert hopper 3.png Desert hopper banner.png 200mio_rainshadow_desert.jpg Futuroscope jungle.jpg |-|Models= Desert hopper statue.png Desert hopper statue 2.png Desert hopper statues.png Animaux du Futur Futuroscope073.jpg Animaux du Futur Futuroscope075.jpg In other languages Navigation Category:Animals Category:Invertebrates Category:Molluscs Category:Gastropods Category:Organisms of 200 million AD Category:Organisms of Pangaea II Category:Organisms of the Rainshadow Desert Category:200 million AD